About the Book
When Fern Douglas sees the
news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old missing woman from Maine,
she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of
Astrid’s famous kidnapping—and equally famous return—twenty years ago, but Fern
has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New
Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one
in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream
at all, but a memory.
Back at her childhood home to help her father pack for a
move, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir—which may
have provoked her original kidnapper to abduct her again—and as she reads
through its chapters and visits the people and places within it, she discovers
more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. With
the help of her psychologist father, Fern digs deeper, hoping to find evidence
that her connection to Astrid can help the police locate her. But when Fern
discovers more about her own past than she ever bargained for, the disturbing
truth will change both of their lives forever.
Featuring Megan Collins’s signature “dark, tense, and
completely absorbing” (Booklist) prose and plenty of shocking twists and turns, Behind the Red Door is an arresting
thriller that will haunt you long after you turn the last page.
My Review
This novel got pretty disturbing in a lot of areas. Fern Douglas most definitely suffered from child abuse growing up, and it was a little tough for me to read about the “Experiments” her father would do on her (purposely leaving her at a store, not coming home through the night in order to see how she would react) in the name of his “work.” It was also hard to accept her mother simply went along with it, because as an artist she could understand her husband’s work was unconventional. But as we dive deeper into the story, learning about Astrid Sullivan’s second disappearance, how Fern was tied to the first, and what exactly happened behind the red door – it will give you chills at how twisted this story is. I was thrown off several times and the ending made me sad. It didn’t quite feel like we got this big AHA payoff moment at the end, because the plot twists kept on coming, but overall it was really hard for me to put this down. It was a well-written story that kept me up at night thinking about the characters, and I would recommend if you enjoy suspense/thriller novels.
4.5 stars
